


Together We Fall

by eerian_sadow



Series: Species Imperative [6]
Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Community: gestalt_love, Gen, Meta, Other, Violence, challenge, gestalt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-25
Updated: 2012-09-25
Packaged: 2017-11-15 01:28:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/521645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-battle, the Protectobots report in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the May 2011 Rashamon Challenge at the livejournal community gestalt_love.

**Post Battle Report: Gestalt Team Protectobots, Team Member: Medic, Designation: First Aid**

“Please, have a seat. We won’t be long.”

“Must we do this right now? I have patients in the repair bay right now who require my attention.”

“I’m afraid we must. Post battle reports have to be compiled as quickly after combat as possible. If you’ll sit, we can begin.”

“Very well. In the future, perhaps you should consider a simple data upload. It will be faster and more efficient.” 

“We tried that in the past. Our analysts have problems interpreting the data from gestalt teams. Now, your report.”

“From the beginning of the battle or when Defensor entered the fray?”

“From the beginning please.”

“We—the Protectobots, I mean—had been stationed at Crystal City for some ten cycles at the time of the attack. Just enough time for us to be passingly familiar with the city and feel comfortable enough to split up. I am uncertain of the exact locations of my brothers when the assault began, but I was in the hatchling care facility in the central tower watching a small clutch of hatchlings emerge. I had never actually seen hatchlings emerge, you see, and when I was offered the opportunity to observe the procedures involved in person, Hot Spot insisted that I go.

“I… I was only able to save one of them, when the facility was bombed. I tried, but there was so much panic and so much damage…”

“It’s all right, First Aid. Take your time.”

“With respect sir, I cannot. I have to get back to the repair bay. 

“When it became obvious that the facility was a loss, I assisted in the evacuation as much as possible before Hot Spot called for us to rendezvous for the battle itself. There was at least one Decepticon combiner team on the ground at that point, Devastator I think. We didn’t face him; our main concern was keeping the Seekers from destroying the power station. As you know, we failed.”

“Yes, but you shouldn’t have. At least in theory. What happened?”

“One of them had a sonic weapon of some kind. It forced us out of our combined form and disoriented us long enough for them to drop their bombs into the power station. The resulting explosion knocked both Hot Spot and Streetwise offline and the rest of us were still too unstable to continue to fight. When the retreat was sounded, one of the shuttles diverted to pick us up.”

“That’s all? You have no other details to add?”

“No sir. Anything else I might know is somewhere in the group memory, which is difficult to access unless we’re combined. If you require additional details, I suggest questioning Defensor himself. _After_ I have finished in the repair bay.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Post Battle Report: Gestalt Team Protectobots, Team Member: Leader, Designation: Hot Spot**

“You pulled one of my troops in here without my knowledge.”

“We felt it would expedite the process and allow First Aid to return to the repair bay more quickly if he delivered his report first.”

“Why wasn’t I consulted for this decision? The lives of other mechs—of _Autobot soldiers_ —were endangered by your actions. Was your report so important that you had to inflict that on him, after everything else that went wrong today?”

“The regulations require the immediate collection of reports from all combiner teams in a combat situation. You know that, Hot Spot.”

“Frag the regulations. Do you know how many Autobots deactivated while you drug First Aid back through your report procedure? Ten! And at least three of them could have been saved if there had been another medic in the room.”

“I am sorry for their loss, but the procedures must be followed.”

“Yeah, well maybe next time you should follow the procedures all the way through and interview the medic _last_. It’s set up that way for a reason.”

“I will take your thoughts into consideration. Now, your report please, Hot Shot.”

“Right. My _report_.

“We were scattered, when the Decepticon assault team arrived. First Aid was at the hatchery, Blades was flying with another aerial support mech on a security patrol, Groove was getting to know some of the locals and Streetwise and I were in the hall of records going over the layout of the city. We had been there for ten cycles and knew our way around well enough, but we wanted to be prepared for any assault directed toward the weaker points of the city’s defenses.

“We weren’t prepared for the assault. At all. No one in the city was. The Seekers came down on us out of nowhere—I don’t know how they got into the local airspace without being detected. They took out the medical center first and somehow First Aid escaped that without a scratch. Blades was shot out of the sky during the opening of the assault and is currently grounded indefinitely. His patrol partner was deactivated. Groove managed to secure seventy civilians in one of the security bunkers before the area became too combat active and we were able to safely rescue all of them after the Decepticons withdrew. Streetwise and I managed to evacuate the hall of records safely before the Seekers turned their weaponry on it. I called my team in as quickly as possible once I had seen to the safety of the civilians in the hall, but I believe that I may have delayed too long. The Decepticon target was the city’s primary power station, which they took down with ease, even after we combined into Defensor.”

“And how did they manage that?”

“I don’t really remember. They had some sort of weapon that forced us apart after we had combined, but the damage I suffered from its use wiped out portions of my short term memory storage. I remember ordering my team to combine, I remember Defensor being shot and then I was waking up in the repair bay.”

“I see. Thank you, Hot Spot. You are dismissed.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Post Battle Report: Gestalt Team Protectobots, Team Member: Tactics, Second-in-command, Designation: Streetwise**

 

“Please, take a seat, Streetwise. The medical team informs me that you took quite a bit of damage out there today and I wouldn’t want you to overly stress yourself.”

“With respect, sir, it hurts less if I stand.”

“I see. Still, you are injured so we should get procedures out of the way as quickly as possible. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes sir. But I don’t… everything after we left the hall of records is just gone, sir. I don’t remember anything. The medical team said they thought that it was residual damage from the weapon that forced Defensor apart.”

“Hmm. Well, then tell me what you do remember from the beginning of the assault.”

“All right. …We’d been in Crystal City for ten cycles, long enough for the locals to be used to seeing us and for the officials to trust us with their records and their protection. Groove was out in the city making friends and Blades was on air patrol with one of the local security mechs while First Aid was observing a hatching at the medical center. Hot Spot and I thought that it would be a good opportunity for the two of us to study the city layout more thoroughly without distractions. We were looking at the plans for the defense grid, looking to see where it could be updated and improved, when the assault force made their initial pass. First Aid successfully managed to evacuate the surviving medical personnel after the first pass and Groove successfully moved many of the city residents into secure bunkers while Hot Spot and I evacuated the hall of records and attempted to set up some sort of counterforce. He called the others in while we were evacuating the building, but I can’t remember anything after that except pain. Whatever they shot Defensor with hurt him a lot.”

“Are you certain that you don’t remember anything else?”

“No, sir. Not a thing. It’s all just… blank. Like being shot with an EM cannon, but it hurt more.”

“Nothing at all? Not even a vague impression of… something?”

“No, nothing. And continuing to ask me about it is not going to cause some sort of miraculous memory recovery. If you want to know if anything else was retrieved from my memory chips, you should ask the medical team.”

“Of course. You will contact me if you recall anything relevant. Dismissed.”

“Yes sir.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Post Battle Report: Gestalt Team Protectobots, Team Member: Aerial Support, Designation: Blades**

“Please come in, take a seat. How are you feeling?”

“Don’t try to play nice with me. We both know you don’t give two pieces of scrap about how I’m feeling.”

“Forgive me for trying to be polite.”

“You should have tried for “polite” with Hot Spot before you yanked First Aid in here for long enough that three patients died on his watch. And before you harassed Streetwise about not being able to remember things. The time for “polite” was before you pulled us in for our reports.”

“Are you _quite_ finished? It would be a shame to further distress your team by charging you with insubordination.”

“Well, if you’re going to threaten me with that, then I might as well let you know that Hot Spot and I have already reported you to command for violating the regulations regarding the handling of gestalt teams and the collection of information regarding them. I can’t imagine your superiors are going to be too happy with you.”

“Your point is taken. Give me your report and get out, then.”

“Right, that. Crystal City was nice. Lots of high places for us flying types to roost in, nice people, city magistrates that really did want out help to keep everyone safe. They were so excited to see us that we felt like we were the Prime himself. They put us to work right away--little stuff at first like fortifying the defenses at the security force base, but more important as we got to know them. I got sent on a lot of air patrols with their flying security force, to help train them with some military perspective.

“When they attacked I was on patrol with a glider named Airfoil. He was fast, but not armored and his weapons didn’t have a chance against Seeker-grade armor. They shot him out of the sky before we even knew they were there. I didn’t even have time to bring my weapons online before they did the same to me. I watched them bomb the medical center as I fell.”

“And?”

“Give me a klik. Things get mixed up in our processors when we combine.

“Groove was Groove. Nothing gets to him, ever. He’s probably the only reason I didn’t panic during the crash. I laid there for a while after I landed, trying to figure out how they’d gotten the drop on us like that. I couldn’t even make myself try to get up until Hot Spot called us in.

“We didn’t combine right away after I got there. Streetwise was trying to set up some kind of ground support for us, and First Aid was trying to get the hatchling to go with one of the others from the city. Once the hatchling was finally with one of the other survivors, we combined into Defensor. Probably didn’t need to have bothered, though.

“He was slowed down, because I was damaged. He didn’t stand a chance when the Decepticons decided to test their new weapon on him. We just… fell apart. Hot Spot and Streetwise took the worst of it, but I wasn’t much better off. Street’s fire support team kept us covered, but we were all out of the fight. We wouldn’t have been able to do anything else, even if Devastator had made his way across the city to take us on. The Decepticons knew just how and where to hit us, and as a result we lost the city.”

“And is there anything else you would like to add?”

“On the record? Nope.”

“Dismissed, then.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Post Battle Report: Gestalt Team Protectobots, Team Member: Scout, Designation: Groove**

“So why am I going last?”

“Because your teammates have already given their verbal reports.”

“Yeah, but why am I last? Aid’s supposed to be last so he can tend the wounded.”

“And I suppose you’re going to tell me off about that as well.”

“Nah, Hot Spot and Blades have enough mad about that for all of us. But you have to remember that our creators put those protocols in place for a reason, long before they made it into the regulations. We have to be handled a certain way, because what affects one of us affects all of us. Devastator is crazy for a reason.”

“I will thank you _not_ to lecture me about my duties.”

“Sure mech. Just trying to help smooth the road, but if you don’t want to, we’ll get down to business. Where do you want me to start?”

“With where you were at the time of the assault.”

“Sure. I was out on the street, getting to know the locals. They’re good people, but good people can’t always be counted on for help. Friends will watch each other’s backs, though, so I was out making friends while I learned my way around the residential districts. I was having a celebratory drink with some of the potential Guardians for the hatchlings First Aid was watching emerge when I felt Blades get shot down. Felt him fall, felt him hit the ground, felt all of it. The hardest thing I ever did was to stay calm and get the civilians into the underground shelter instead of going to my brother.”

“I would appreciate it if you stopped working your lecture points into your report. Consider it an order.”

“You know, you really make me miss Prowl. He was strict, but he treated us like mechs and not just… paperwork or drones. And we _are_ mechs. We just have some odd code.”

“Your report, _Groove_.”

“Right. So I got the civilians in the neighborhood rounded up and into the shelter and was already on my way to Hot Spot when he called the rest of the team in. sStreetwise was already there when I arrived, organizing a small militia to give us some support until reinforcements could get to us. First Aid met up with us not long after that, with another medic and that hatchling riding on his back like Aid was his assigned Guardian. Blades got there later, looking like he had been fighting with an entire wing of Seekers. We merged into Defensor once First Aid convinced the hatchling to stay with the other medic for a bit. Once Defensor was online, the Seekers came around and started firing on him. Defensor returned fire, but he didn’t even take one of them down before one of them him with that weapon and took the big guy down.

“It hurt, and I mean all of us. We’re not supposed to come apart like that. We all lay there on the ground, stunned or offline for a while. The other medic hid until the Seekers went after the power plant, and the came out to tend us. The Decepticons trashed the city and left.”

“You have an amazing recall of events. The other members of you team seemed to be having some trouble with their memories.”

“Nah. I just had more time to get everything sorted out and figure out what was really mine. But if you want any other details, you’ll have to ask the big guy.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Post Battle Report: Gestalt Team Protectobots, Team Member: Combined Form, Designation: Defensor**

“Defensor! I require a report for your experiences from the last battle.”

“My experiences are not relevant. I was present for only a few joors.”

“None of your components have memory files of what happened to you during the battle. I require that information.”

“I see. The Protectobots combined into my form to repel a Seeker wing. The Decepticons fired on me with a cannon type that was not familiar to me, but I will share my memory files with Computron when we meet again to see if the information is in his data storage banks. The cannon blast hit me where the mech Streetwise connects to the mech Hot Spot and severely damaged them. It hurt me and my Protectobots, and I chose to spare them further damage by splitting into their separate bodies again. We cannot protect if we are all too damaged to live.”

“You forced the separation? I was unaware that was possible.”

“It is possible. And sometimes necessary for the preservation of the mechs who hold our forms and sparks.”

“I see. Why isn’t this included in the training for my division, then?”

“Because you did not need to know.”

“But if we knew, we could--”

“You did not need to know. You will never be able to use the knowledge in any case.”

“You understand that I will put this in my report.”

“Yes. It does not matter. Now go; my Protectobots do not like you and I wish for them to be happy again.”


End file.
